1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an image reading apparatus and a computer-readable carrier containing a control program for the image reading apparatus. In particular, the invention relates to an image reading apparatus and a computer-readable carrier containing a control program for the image reading apparatus which permit an output range of read image data to be easily and appropriately set to a range desired by an operator.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An image reading apparatus, such as a facsimile machine, a copying machine, or a scanner, is provided with operation keys and a display portion. A user or an operator operates the apparatus using the operation keys and recognizes or checks an operating state of the apparatus on the display portion. Once the image reading apparatus starts reading a document upon manipulation of the operation keys by the user, image data of the document which has been read is outputted to a device which is supposed to receive the image data (hereinafter, referred to as “image-data receiving device” where appropriate). Where the image reading apparatus is a facsimile machine, the image-data receiving device is a recipient's facsimile machine that is connected, via communication lines, to the image reading apparatus. In this instance, the image data which has been read is transmitted to the recipient's facsimile machine via the communication lines. Where the image reading apparatus is a copying machine, the image-data receiving device is a printer incorporated in the copying machine. In this instance, an image based on the read image data is recorded by the printer on a recording sheet. Where the image reading apparatus is a scanner, the read image data is outputted to a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as “PC”) as the image-data receiving device. Based on the image data inputted to the PC, an image is recorded by a printer connected to the PC. Alternatively, the image data inputted to the PC is written into a storage medium via a driver.
In recent years, there has been proposed an image reading apparatus configured such that the read image data is outputted to and displayed on the display portion as an image, which display portion is provided integrally with or independently of the image reading apparatus, thereby permitting a user or operator to confirm or check the displayed image that is based on the read image data. In such an image reading apparatus, a scanning portion for reading a document is configured to convert a light incident thereupon from a document surface to electric signals by means of a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), convert the thus obtained analog signals into image data in a digital form via an A/D converter, and output the image data. The image data outputted from the scanning portion is stored in a storage portion of the image reading apparatus, extracted depending upon a resolution for indication on the display portion, and then outputted to the display portion. This is because the resolution for image displaying on the display portion is generally lower than resolution for reading. The proposed image reading apparatus is configured such that the image displaying on the display portion is performed substantially concurrently with the reading by the scanning portion. The thus constructed reading apparatus is disclosed in a Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2001-337662), for instance.